Ride railing
In 2016, Easy Taxi was a leading ride-hailing platform, well-established in markets across Brazil and Latin America. The company was at an expansion point, looking to diversify its services beyond traditional taxis.
Company:
Easy Taxi
Role:
Lead UI Designer
Year:
2016
Objective
To drive growth and meet new user needs, Easy Taxi decided to expand its offering to include private drivers and carpooling. The design challenge was:
Display multiple ride options: Help users compare and select the best ride option on the home screen with minimal taps.
Simplify the flow: Allow the user to request a ride with or without setting a destination.
Reduce friction: Optimize the overall request process to decrease cancellation and app abandonment rates.
Process
To validate design hypotheses quickly and effectively, the process focused on high-fidelity prototyping from the start.
High-Fidelity Prototyping: An interactive prototype was built to explore transitions, behaviors, and the overall perception of the new interface.
Usability Testing: The prototype was initially tested with 10 active Easy Taxi users to prove assumptions and the new concept's efficiency.
User Flow Review: The user's "golden path" was mapped and reviewed to identify and eliminate friction points.
Solution
The solution was a complete redesign of the main screen and ride request flow:
New Home Screen: The interface was updated to clearly display Origin and Destination fields, available service types (taxi, private driver, etc.), and nearby drivers.
Service Comparison: The new design allowed users to easily compare price and ETA differences between services.
Optimized Request Flow: The process to select and request a ride was simplified, enabling the user to order a car even without a destination set.
Key takeaways
The redesigned flow for comparing and choosing rides kept the app straightforward while opening space for new services. The impact was clear:
Reduced cancellations: Post-request cancellations dropped by 32 percent.
More flexibility: Riders could now request a trip without setting a destination upfront.
Greater clarity: The new home screen highlighted additional services and made price comparisons easier to understand.
Additional enhancements
We also introduced small delights for curious users, including easter-egg games, Peace-of-mind features like transparent route sharing and tracking, and support for wearable integrations.
